Toten Herzen Malandanti — Chris Harrison

After the disasterous events in the previous novel 'We Are Toten Herzen' the band are forced to count the costs and the repurcussions of their comeback tour. The focus turns to the safety of the recording studio and their first album in forty years. Things can't get any worse. But this is Toten Herzen, the dead rock band: murdered in 1977, discovered alive in 2013. Guitarist Susan Bekker wants to sing, antagonising lead singer Dee Vincent whose catastrophic interview in Hullaballoo magazine leads to a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Rob Wallet, the band's publicist, flirts with insanity when he isn't flirting with Lena, the seductive former terrorist and leader of a network of covens known as the Malandanti. The story sets down amongst the isolated mountains of the English Lake District, with excursions to post-communist St. Petersburg and Bamberg in Germany, scene of the 17th century witch trials. Along the way the band are assaulted by an ever growing list of mysteries. Why has a Russian voice coach arrived uninvited at three in the morning? Why are the Malandanti searching for a book owned by Dee Vincent? What is Susan Bekker's Big Lie? And is the valley pictured in a 14th century painting the source and home of the first European vampires? Blue hair, black magic, talking sheep, murderous bushes, necromancy, alchemy and leather-clad litigation. It's all captured on film by a deafening Dutch director in Chris Harrison's paranormal dark comedy Toten Herzen Malandanti. Book two in the authorised account of the band's astonishing and some would say unbelievable comeback.